Joanna Connor – Live on 11/11
M.C. Records MC-0097
10 songs – 64 minutes
There are few guitarists in the world – male and female – who can hold their own on stage with blues-rock guitarist Joanna Connor, a native New Yorker who grew up in Worchester, Mass., and has been delivering incendiary riffs from the South Side of Chicago since the early ’80s. And she’s at her fiery best with this set, which – like the title states – was recorded at The Fallout Shelter in Norwood, a Boston suburb, last November.
She fell in love with the blues early and saw Buddy Guy live at age ten. Almost immediately after her arrival in the Windy City, Dion Payton, the leader of the 43rd Street Blues Band – a fixture at Buddy’s Checkerboard Lounge took her on as a student. And Guy’s been one of her instructors, too. A talented newcomer, she became a fret master who blazes. Every note she plays is powerful, tasteful and pretty much shred-free.
Connor formed her own band and made her recording debut in 1990 with Believe It, an instant hit on the Blind Pig label that quickly earned her a spot in the national and international blues scenes, on which she was active until 2005, when she took a hiatus from touring to care for her daughter while remaining busy on the local scene. But she maintained her international presence by recording for M.C. Records in the U.S. and two German labels, In-Akustik and Ruf, too.
Her career took off again in a big way thanks to 4801 South Indiana Avenue, a 2021 offering on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive imprint, which soared to the top spot on Billboard’s blues chart and earned her Blues Music Awards nominations in four different categories. This disc marks Joanna’s return to M.C. after Best of Me, which came out on Gulf Coast three years ago.
Running more than an hour, Joanna roars like a lioness one moment and drops to a whisper the next in front of an enthusiastic crowd throughout this one with backing from keyboard player Dan Souvigny, bassist Shaun Gotti Calloway and drummer Jason “JRoc” Edwards.
The familiar strains of Ziggy Modeliste’s Big Easy instrumental, “Cissy Strut,” open the action in with Joanna playing call-and-response with Souvigny, which immediately raises the temperature. Connor’s stinging single-note runs command the second half of the song in which the rhythm section gets to show their chops, too.
Two Elmore James numbers follow. A minute-plus, uptempo guitar solo sears to open seven-plus minute version of “Shake Your Moneymaker,” which bares no similarity to the warhorse original. Joanna keeps the heat on high before dropping to a whisper for a mid-song solo. An extended keyboard workout follows, and the simmer returns to a boil again to close. A take on James’ “The Sky Is Crying” is up next. It opens quiet at languorous pace. Connor’s vocal and fretwork tune the number into a torch song that builds in intensity and fury for the final minute of the six-minute run.
The pace changes for Joe Medwick’s “Further on up the Road,” opening with jazz-infused runs and building into a cautionary and powerful tale about love and loss. You feel the pain in every note of the extended solos Joanna and Dan share mid-tune. The sound turns to Chicago blues with a reading of Little Walter’s “You’re So Fine,” which is updated for 21st century ears. Then Connor takes you to New Orleans again for a funkified blues-rock take on Doctor John’s “Are You Going with Me.”
Chicago takes center stage again for a screaming cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and a driving take on Magic Sam’s “Magic Sam Boogie” before Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” and Memphis Minnie and Kansas City Joe’s “When the Levee Breaks” bring the action to a close.
This one’s blues you can use. Strongly recommended.
